Jar of Hearts
by Auslly Shipper 15
Summary: Ally reveals to Austin her dark past from the day her mother left up until Dallas broke her and her heart. Rated T for the slight darkness it contains.


**So this is a darker side of my writing. It'll be a one-shot. Just give it a try and tell me what you think. Thanks and enjoy!**

**I do not own Austin and Ally.**

I sit with my feet propped up on one arm rest of the couch and my head is laying on the other; it's more comfortable than it sounds like. Ally isn't here – a rarity for her – I probably should call her, but she said she was feeling sick last night when we were working on our newest song – which is sitting at my piano unfinished. I would finish it, but let's face it: my song writing skills are a piece of shit. That's why Ally's been my partner for almost five years; I never switched to a new writer even though the record company insisted that I did to "produce the best music possible." Well my fans up until that point didn't seem to mind our partnership. Hell they even gave us a ship name – like Brangelina or TomKat – it's Auslly.

I have to say I like our ship name, especially since it involves Ally and myself as if we were a couple. What am I saying? I don't like Ally that way, of course I use to like her like that and vice versa, but we agreed that those feelings would get in the way of our partnership. We are dating different people now. She's with an old crush from freshman year – Dallas – and I'm with Cassidy. Even if I don't plan on staying with her for much longer due to her jealousy issues.

A knock on the door brings me back from my day-dreaming. I open the door to reveal a long legged beauty with waist blonde hair – Cassidy. She isn't planning to stay long since she's not wearing make-up, which is the only way I know how long she's planning to stay. The less make-up, the shorter the stay. "Hey, babe," I kissing her cheek moving out of the doorway to allow her to come in. It feels wrong to call her babe when I plan to breakup with her soon.

"Hi," she says as she walks pass me and sits on the couch, another sign that she won't be here long. "Can we talk?" And that is the conformation that I know she's not going to be here for long.

"Sure," I say closing the door and walking over to the couch, sitting on the opposite side of her. "What's up?"

"I wanna breakup."

"Why?"

She pauses, sucking in a breath. She's been crying: her eyes are puffy and red. "I think the relationship has ran its course," which is her way of saying that she's moved on. Well at least that's what it means to me. I know I have. "I'm so sorry, Austin," she says when I go a moment without speaking. She hugs me tightly.

"I've been thinking that too," I say when she releases me, finally able to catch my breath. She's tiny but damn she was strong.

"You have?" She looks up at me with a look of disappointment and sorrow. Maybe a hint of relief.

"Yeah."

"And you're – you're cool with it?" I nod, and she hugs me, crying a little. "Okay. Bye, Austin," She says, kissing my cheek, and leaving. I look at the clock – it was only three minutes since she arrived and now she was gone. I go back to the movie that I was watching before Cassidy came. I end up falling asleep until the phone rings, which causes me to practically become a ninja.

"Hello?"

"Austin?" It's Ally.

"Yeah, Alls?"

"Um – I'm sorry if you're busy," she's crying, "but could you c-come over? I wouldn't ask if – if it wasn't important."

"Yeah, Ally. I'll be over in like ten minutes." I say taking my jacket off the coat hanger next to the door.

"Thanks," she says and hangs up the phone. When I get to the car, I practically book it to her house. I have a spare key, but check her door anyways which opens easily. It must be important because Ally never leaves her door unlocked, ever.

I walk up the steps and grab a pint of ice cream from the fridge and call out her name. No answer. _Shit!_ I run to her bedroom, where she's not at. I then go to her bathroom. There she sits with a razor blade on the bathtub and a bottle of pills on the sink's counter. "Ally!" I yell and run to her dropping the ice cream. She's bawling her eyes out, and I check her wrist – no cuts – then her thighs – nothing. I'm not going to check anywhere else. I check the pill bottle – unopened. "What the hell happened?" I ask pulling her off the closed toilet on to the ground, letting her lay in my arms. She doesn't answer, and I can't help but wonder if she hid the other bottle of pills or something. "What happened?" I enunciate.

"H-H-He's been ch-ch-cheating on me!" She sobs in my shirt; it'll be soaked before I leave here.

"That little shit," I mummer. "Do you want me to kick his ass?" She shakes her head. "Do you want to watch a movie?" She shakes her head. "Do you want to cry?" She nods. "Do you want ice cream?" She nods and I hand her the carton of cookies and cream. Eventually she falls asleep in my arms, and my arms are asleep. I pick her up, and bring her to her bed. When she lands softly in the warmth of the bed, she opens her eyes, looking at me with a face that could melt even the Grinch's heart.

She says something that I can't hear. When she repeats it, I barely hear it, "Stay." It's not a question, but a command. I'm glad that I've left clothes at her house in case I had to stay all night. I didn't want the neighbors to think badly of her. I walk over to the other side of the bed and get underneath the covers. The first time I've ever done this. She turns to face me and kisses my cheek. "Thank you." She smiles and turns over to go back asleep, and I happily follow.

When I wake up she's awake and staring at me. "Good morning," I say smiling at her.

"Good morning." She smiles back, and I kiss her lips. "What the hell?" I raise an eyebrow. "Why did you kiss me?" I forgot to tell her about Cassidy, I realize. I happily fill her in. I start with my feelings for her compared to Cassidy, and I end with last night and her supposed suicide attempt. She doesn't speak for a moment, letting everything sink in. She ends up crying again.

"Why are you crying?"

"Did Cassidy tell you why she was breaking up with you?"

" 'The relationship ran its course.' Why does that have to do anything?" I cock my eyebrow as she takes a tissue and dabs her eyes.

"He cheated on me," She pauses, I think she wants me to fill in the blank, which I don't. "He cheated on me with Cassidy. I caught them in bed last night, and she ran over to your house to breakup with you before I got the chance to tell you. So I did the next best thing: I broke up with him. He hit, and called me a useless piece of shit and a good for nothing. So I came home and was ready to commit – I even had my notes ready – but I called you instead. And when you held me, it-it seemed like all my troubles melted away." I'm tearing up by the end of her monologue; I'm speechless honestly. "When I was with Dallas, I always felt like shit, but when I'm around you, I-my troubles seem to wash away. You're my best friend, Austin, I-" I cut her off then by kissing her. I know what she'll say.

"I love you, too, Ally," she smiles and kisses me, like really kisses me. It's the first one where we've both kissed back, and it feels amazing. That's when she realizes that we're in bed and pulls away, much to my disappointment. "I'll take that as an 'I love you, too, Austin'" She nods and gets out of the bed, and I follow. I go over to my stash of clothes and change when she goes in the bathroom to do the same. She comes out with her eyes swollen, a razor blade in hand. "Why do you have that?" I ask as she walks past me. She says nothing so I follow after I grab the ice cream tub and the bottle of pills. She walks into the kitchen and throws the blade away, then she takes the pills and throws them away, and I throw away the tub. She then hands me an envelope that I hadn't seen earlier. "Is this-?"

"Yes." She knows what I was going to say. "Read it when you leave." She dressed in work clothes: black pants and blazer with a neo pink shirt. "I'm going to work. I'll see you later." She walks to the garage, and just like that she's gone. I leave her home after making sure all the doors are locked and drive back to my place, an apartment complex across town. An apartment complex with a door opener person named Jack.

"Long night, Mr. Moon?" He asks. It must suck to be him; he's at least twenty years older than me but has to call me Mr. Moon.

"I'll say," he opens the door and I yell a thanks and head up to my apartment. When I get there I don't know how much strength to open the letter and read it. I grab a beer in case.

_Austin,_

_Where do I begin? My life has pretty much sucked up until this point, and I'm finally at the edge of it. I'm through with this-this shit honestly. You have nothing to do with this, so I'll inform you on everything that has brought me to the point I'm at now._

_I guess it all started when my parents split. I was five, and that's when my mom packed up and went to Africa to study, or do whatever the hell she does-did. My mom would always hold me when my dad yelled at me and made me cry and would say "You've not seen the have of it." I never knew what she meant until one day. I came home from Sonic Boom and found my father drunk as a skunk, and naked – which wasn't a pretty sight. He then raped me and beat me so much I went to the hospital.__ That continued until he killed himself on my eighteenth birthday. I was relieved but acted devastated._

_That was when I had been dating Dallas for two years. He had already hit me past the breaking point more than once, and I hated him for it. But when he wasn't treating me like shit, he was the sweetest guy I had ever met, even more than you – I think mainly because he was my boyfriend and you weren't. When you started dating Tilly he began to hit me again. That one time where I went to the hospital because I was in car accident – well it was more a car accident on purpose; I got in the car with Dallas – not realizing how much he had to drink – and he purposely ran into the truck, using my side of the car of course. He hated the fact that you came to my rescue in the hospital, and when we were both out he knocked me out for a good day or two._

_The night I woke up was the first night he raped me, he even brought in another girl. He raped me once a week until last week. I was finally pushed over the edge, and I threatened suicide. He knew I wouldn't do it because I didn't write a note to you, but here it is now. _

_I've always wanted to tell you how I feel about you. I've loved you since we started working together, and I missed having you around. You were the person I never minded loosing sleep over, and now I want you to know that it's okay to move on and you should breakup with Cassidy because he's been cheating on me with her. _

_I love you, see you when you get here._

_Ally_

I hadn't touched my beer up until that point, but now I was chugging it with all my might. I end up punching a hole in the wall, which I'll either have to fix or pay for. It's not that deep so I'll fix it myself; the record label would have a cow if they knew I punched a hole in the wall. I call Ally after fixing the letter, still crying, still angry. "We need to talk."

"I thought you'd never ask," she says as the knocking on the door begins. She is standing there in her work clothes. "I was at a movie before you ask."

"Can you explain?" I ask holding up the letter, and she sits on the couch and begins to tell me everything, and I mean everything. The stuff she didn't even tell me last night. By the end we're both crying and holding each other. "Why didn't you tell me?" I ask when I can speak finally.

She pauses as if thinking about her response, "I didn't want to get hurt again." I cock my eyebrow. "All the men in my life have hurt me in one way or another except you, and I keep waiting for you to, and it honestly sucks." She sucks in a breath. "It sucks think pessimistically when I want to be optimistic, and I just wait and wonder when you are going to hurt me, and I know in my heart that you won't."

"Ally, baby, that will never happen," I promise her. Calling her baby seems really weird, but oddly enough, I like it.

"Yes it will," she retorts.

"No it won't."

"Prove it!"

I stutter, "I-I-I can't, baby, you'll just have to trust me, like you always have." I say simply and she pulls my face closer and kisses me. It feels amazing to be kissing her once more, even if the last kiss was a few hours ago.

"I trust you." She responds, and I plan on proving it to her.


End file.
